Thursday, February 11, 2010

Tim Horton's levies lifetime ban on a man for complaining about it's decaf coffee. Apparently the decaf coffee served by two Tim Horton's near the Jimmy Craig's home consistently tasted burnt.

I have never been to either of these Tim Horton locations but this is a problem I've encountered on numerous occasions. Their web site indicates that the coffee must be served within 20 minutes of brewing but that is not always the case especially in regards to decaf coffee.

My Dad drinks decaf and when I used to do coffee runs for him back when I was in high school he would made me ask Timmy's to brew a fresh pot of decaf for him. Consequently whenever I was too lazy or embarrassed to ask them, he could always tell as the coffee tasted burnt to him. Coincidence, I think not.

This will add coffee diversity to Starbucks as customers will be able to select which beans they want for their individual cup of coffee instead of settling for the bold, mild and decaf versions on sale that day. However, I can see this negatively impacting the wait times at Starbucks as each cup has to be individually ground, poured and served.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Okay, I'm just going to say it. Leviathan is all sorts of awesomeness! The book takes place in an alternate reality at the beginning of World War I, which made me really glad I recenetly finished reading Paris 1919.

The two main characters represent each of the warring factions:

A 15 year old girl named Deryn Sharp dresses up as a boy to join the British Air Service. The Allied Powers in this universe are nicknamed the "Darwinist" after Charles Darwin who pefected a genetic splicing technique which allows the Allies to create their own new species. One of which is the Leviathan class air ship that Deryn is serving on.

The other is a young man Aleksandar Ferdinand who is the son of Arch-Duke Franz Ferdinand who's assissination starts what becomes World War I. The Central Powers are nick named the "Clankers" as they eschew the godless genetic experiment of the Allies and instead focus on steam powered machines. However, the Clankers are still influenced by the Darwinists as their machines tend to be modeled after animals. Such as the 8 legged walking dreadnaught which replaces the tanks we know of.

The universe that author Scott Westerfeld describes is fully developed and his characters act in believable ways. That is, not always in their best interest as they are kids after all.

In case you haven't guessed I give this book my must buy recommendation. Please check out the book's web site as well as it adds a number of extras as well.